Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity of participating in this important debate on the national drugs strategy because this is a major national issue. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Carey, to the debate and wish him well in developing sensible policies to deal with this problem. To illustrate my direct experience of this issue, last week I attended another funeral of a past pupil of mine who died due to drugs. We must accept that we are losing many sensible young people to drugs. Things were bad in the 1980s when we had a major heroin epidemic, but in 2007 we still have a significant problem.

See this speech in context